Author Archives: Kristine Lofamia

Your art collection, no matter how small or extensive, is something that is surely very important to you. Of course, you would want to protect it by all means possible. Art pieces, after all, cost a substantial amount of your hard-earned money, and are considered investments that can also provide you with some liquidity or additional assets in the future. Of course, they are also for your personal enjoyment and you should be able to enjoy your art collection for a long period of time even if they are not as large or famous as the art collections included in this list.

When you make security precautions for your home or other properties, you should also include your art collection. There are specific policies and services that you can look into especially for the ample protection of your works of art.

Here are some guidelines you can follow on how to best protect your collection:

Have the right insurance policy. Your home insurance should have proper protection for your art collection in case of fire, natural disasters, theft, and other incidents. In particular, the personal property coverage in your home insurance policy should have full coverage for your art collection. This means in case your collection is lost or damaged, your financial investment will be protected. If the value of your collection exceeds that which can be covered by your home insurance provider, you should look into additional coverage specifically for your art works. You can find very useful information like the different types of art insurance and the companies offering them in this article.

Use electronic security installations. There are plenty of options available to homeowners these days for securing their property, including electronic home alarm systems, CCTV and surveillance systems, and remote-controlled locks and gates. Your home security system should be up-to-date and working properly so your home and your belongings are always fully protected.

Secure all entrances and access points. Doors, windows, garage doors, and other entry and exit points must be properly secured to avoid unwelcome intrusions. If there are any repairs or replacements needed, such as new garage doors, make sure they are performed immediately. You can use this garage door prices guide in the event that you’d need to replace your garage door. Delaying necessary replacements or repairs would expose your home and your art collection to strangers.

Register your collection. Another important safeguard for your art works is registration in the Art Loss Register which is a worldwide database of lost or stolen art, collectibles, and antiques. Registration with this database will greatly increase the chances of your valued collection being recovered in case of theft. Registration costs per piece of art is minimal but will prove invaluable in the unfortunate likelihood that your art collection is compromised.

Limit exposure. While you would want to enjoy your art collection with your family and friends, you should also safeguard against unnecessary exposure or access to your collection. One example of this is your social media accounts such as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Your accounts should be private or keep out unauthorized users especially if you have revealing photos of your collection online which can give criminals an idea of what you have.

Keep important documents safe. The corresponding paperwork for your art collection should always be kept in a secure place, preferably not in the same room as your collection. These documents will be important when you need to file an insurance claim and provide proof of ownership, or if you file any reports with authorities regarding incidences of theft.

Stuck in a rut? Artistic people who use their creativity on a daily basis may sometimes end up with no new ideas to begin their next project. Everyone from musicians, writers, dancers, directors, choreographers, playwrights, photographers, and a lot more other artists, have to keep coming up with fresh content in the constant search for the next big thing.

There are a lot of ways to keep yourself inspired. One of the most advised is listening to your own heart. Though it may sound very cliché, spending some alone time in your own thoughts can be helpful to find new inspiration. Keeping a journal can also sort out the many thoughts that you have. You don’t need to have them organized, but keeping the distractions away can help keep your focus on what you’re working on.

More often than not, inspiration doesn’t come instantly. The artist will have the idea but it will slowly build, and will have to go through many drafts and changes before becoming a masterpiece. Constant work is needed to develop a good work. As with any passionate endeavor, you have to spend time practicing your craft, and through this you can get the needed inspiration.

Interestingly, light is also one of the sources of artistic ideas. Artists find that more windows help when they need more ideas. So why not find more light by actually going outdoors?

After all, one of the best ways to find inspiration is to get high. And no, it’s not in the herbal kind of way that you think, but to literally get as high as you can by trekking a mountain. The outdoors is a great source of inspiration for artists of all kinds.

A new place can help artists who seek creativity get that mental rejuvenation they need. Just imagine what you can find when you experience a thousand feet (or more!) climb. There are a lot of reasons why people try mountain climbing, and they are great reasons to do so. Aside from the physical benefits that you can get, such as strength building, increased stamina, and altitude training, it can also help with your mental development as well. Climbing high mountains will help you stay humble while also building your confidence. As you start to explore and push yourself to new heights, you’ll find creative insights like never before.

But be warned, mountaineering is risky. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can be seriously hurt. This online resource provides the statistics on people who were killed while mountaineering. It can also be quite expensive too, since you’re going to need equipment, and you have to travel to where the mountains are. You may be wary of doing all these just to get some fresh ideas… yet you’ll see that after each climb, you’ll feel a sense of simultaneous motivation and accomplishment. After experiencing that new environment and overcoming that amazing climb, you’ll find yourself going back to work revitalized and with overflowing creativity.

Most importantly, before you go to any trek, you have to bring the essentials. Make sure you have proper footwear (hiking boots with socks are best), comfortable but suitable attire, jacket for the cold, sunscreen, bug spray, first aid kit, pocketknife, and most especially, food. Get to know some useful rock show buying tips from this page.

And of course, before you head to the mountains, make sure to visit one of the Tires Plus Locations found here to ensure that your vehicle is up to the job and will keep your journey safe.

The beauty and mystery of abstract art is how open and subjective it is. Interpreting abstract art, if you are not familiar with it yet, may seem intimidating or confusing. But abstract works of art is actually very welcoming, inviting you to just open your mind and be ready to feel, see, or appreciate the meaning or message as it appeals to you, based on your own experiences and perspective. Before we dive deeper into understanding abstract art, it would only make sense that we take a minute to visit this site and learn the history of abstract expressionism.

That said, it is wrong to assume that abstract art is just a chaotic hodge-podge of meaningless shapes, lines, colors, and textures. There is also structure and composition in abstract art, and in fact the best and most well-known abstract artists do follow the recognized rules of drawing skills, composition, and an understanding of the impact and contrast of colors. When you take the time to really study and understand abstract art, you will find that it is, at its core, possessing the formal qualities of art and exploring the lines, patterns, textures, colors, and process as any other type of art.

In order to begin to appreciate and understand abstract art, it is important to expose yourself to as many opportunities as possible and have a personal immersion in this form. Find out what displays and exhibits are regularly or occasionally held in your area that feature the works of both newer and older abstract artists from different periods. If there are not as many opportunities where you live, you may have to do some travelling and exploring a little farther from your location. Do not be afraid to get on your Jeep Brute from jeepbrute.com website to explore different avenues of abstract art in other cities.

Take some time to learn about the differences of movements and trends in art. When you research about the history and evolution of art, from realism, impressionism, expressionism, and post-impressionism, to cubism, surrealism, and abstract expressionism, and even to the post-modern minimalism and pluralism of contemporary art, you will learn much about how art has been juxtaposed into human experience.

Join organizations or groups that meet and discuss or appreciate art forms, including abstract expressionism. These allow you to connect with others who also share your curiosity or desire to learn more about abstract art, and also to hear others’ point of view and helpful advice on how to continually grow in your knowledge of abstract expressionism. It will become a more enriching and enjoyable experience as you share stories and learn from others.

It also helps to read up on the artist and where he or she is coming from, as more often than not one’s personal experiences or background are conveyed in art expressions. Perhaps you will have a better understanding of the message of the artist when you find out more about the real person behind the work of art. Think of abstract art as a form of dialogue between the artist and you, the viewer. Are you able to hear, see, or read what the artist is trying to tell you?

Be open to how abstract art makes you feel. As mentioned earlier, the appeal of abstract expressionism lies in how it can relate to different viewer experiences and perspectives. How a piece of art affects you emotionally may not always be the same as another person, and that is perfectly fine because we are all unique in appreciation. Aesthetic interpretation, as emphasized in this article, is quite complex and depends on many factors.

The history of one’s country is an important knowledge to have. It is part of schools’ curriculums, taught every year in elementary, high school, and covered by some subjects in college. Yet even though this topic is so important, not every kid knows the colorful account of her own country’s past.

We can point to various reasons for this lack of interest in history, but it mostly boils to one thing: students find history boring. For history buffs, this may be surprising to hear – each country has such a vibrant past, with stories worth keeping and telling, passed on from one generation to the next. However, the fact remains that the human attention span is very limited. As stated in this article, some experts say that the average attention span is no more than 10 minutes and that would even be cut shorter if one has no genuine interest in the object of one’s attention.

A reason for this disinterest may be due to how history is taught. Lessons are focused on specific details – precise dates, correct spellings of towns and capitals, middle names of significant people – rather than the concept of how the events came to happen in the first place. If teachers focus on the smaller stuff rather than the bigger picture, students will continue on being ignorant on the story of how the current world situation came to be.

How then can history be made interesting for children? One of the methods to teach children history is through books. Reading and talking about history through books made for children will capture their interest. There are available books that tackle almost any historical topic, and there are historical fiction books that promote multiple perspectives and shed light to the everyday life that people back then lived. These historical fiction can help your child relate to little girls in different eras and will help her analyze how different people lived various lifestyles, giving her a wider perspective on the world.

Museums and historical sites that show tangible evidence of the past are also all around us. A trip to historical cities will help your kids put a place and face to the books she’d been reading. It is an awesome way to let kids experience the past visually, by showing landmarks that have a significant meaning to history. Museums are literally everywhere. In the US alone, according to this website, there is a total of no less than 17,500 museums.

Relate to the kids as well. At their age, they will be fond of things that hold their attention, and these things are usually toys. In the unlikely case that your daughter has no interest in reading your suggested books, or gets bored when you go to the historical sites, try reaching out through the toys she plays with. The American Girl Company sells American Girl dolls, a line of 18-inch dolls that represent historical characters of various ethnicities living in different time periods. Each doll has a back-story that will surely get your child’s interest, all told in a book that you can buy with it.

Reading and playing with the dolls will help teaching sessions with child more fun. With stories told from these young dolls’ points-of-view, your daughter will have an easier time understanding important historical topics. Admittedly, these educational dolls do not come cheap. If you’re worried about the price tag, you can always print some American Girl coupons from this site, and you’re on your wayto saving money on your purchase.

It is a personal obligation of each citizen to know of their country’s histories, but adults can certainly make a way for the lessons to be more captivating. This way, we can help the next generation fulfill their own moral and civic duty to their country, simply by knowing their past.

We all want to be healthy. We understand that weight loss means both proper exercise and healthy diet, but why exhaust yourself at the gym if you can just eat certain foods and lose the weight you need to?

It’s not that all of us are lazy, but we know how helpful eating the right food can be. Undoubtedly there are some people who think that there is an instant solution to losing all the body fat they’ve gained through the years, and search for this quick fix magic that will work immediately. Diet fads have come and gone throughout the decade because people actually tried it, only to discard the method when it doesn’t work.

Here’s a list of some of the hottest diet trends that have been popular in the last decade:

1. Low-Carb Diet

Popularized by Dr. Robert Atkins, this high-protein low-carb plan became such as a hug hit. Everyone tried it and it sounds easy at first –you can eat as much as you want of anything you wanted, as long as it doesn’t have carbohydrates.

It has since been revised into many alternative diets, one of which is the South Beach Diet. This diet trend became known as the tamer version of Atkins Diet, because dieters can eat carbs and fat, but they have to make sure it’s among the good ones.

Before you even consider any low-carb diet, it is important to check with your doctor about the possible effects of these diets on your health. Visit this website to know what precautions you need to observe in regard to your health once you decide to commit to a low-carb diet.

2. Protein Shakes

Centuries ago, people would work all day to have enough money to provide healthy, heavy meals for the family. Who would have thought that several years in the future, consumers would rather have all their necessary nutrients in a liquefied version of a meal?

Related to the low-carb diet, these protein shakes became popular when people started reaching for products that are high in protein.It’s that common nowadays that you can get protein shake recipes from this site, and you can easily pick a recipe that is delicious as well as nutritious.

3. Lemonade

The Master Cleanse, more commonly known as “Beyonce’s Dream Girl Diet” became famous when she lost 20 pounds for her role in said movie. Though it sounds healthy, this method takes a whole lot of dedication: you’re only allowed to drink lemonade throughout this diet. According to this article, this diet trend which is also known as Juice Fasting remains controversial for reasons related to its possible side effects. Supposedly you’ll feel lighter and better, as with any other cleanse, but days of drinking a mix of hot water, lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper is enough to make anyone starve to irritation.

4. Whole Grain

People did eventually realize that not all carbs are evil. Whole grain, the healthier cousins of the carbohydrates we hate and love, became popular and now come in different sizes and packages. You now have access to whole grain breads, crackers, cereals, and even whole wheat pasta.

These trends may still be popular up to the next decade, or they may not. What’s certain is that unless people start to accept that they have to change their whole lifestyle to be healthy, they will continue on buying the idea that there is a sure-fire immediate way to lose fat. They want to suffer for a short amount of time, if only so they can go back to how they were living right after.

Of course this is not the way to do it. A lot of people believe that eating this way will help them achieve the body they want, and for a certain time it will, but without proper maintenance they will just go back to their former body weight, or worse, gain more.

What was life like for you when you were growing up? Baby boomers grew up in a fascinating period of history filled with societal upheavals, major changes in how cultures and communities fostered relationships, and a lot of developments in music and the arts. Baby boomers, classified as those born between the mid-1940’s to the early years of the 1960’s, were part of a massive increase in population after World War II. The baby boom generation is also often considered as the best-educated and healthiest generation in history. If you are not too familiar with how the phrase “baby boomers” came about, you can read this informative article.

If you are a baby boomer, you probably look back with fondness at the major events that shaped history when you were growing up. Of course, because the world was picking up the pieces after another major world war, there was a lot of transition going on all around society, but a lot of opportunities as well as nations tried to return to normalcy and readjust to peacetime.

You probably remember this period when the “American Dream” was first mentioned and became an ideal for a lot of people. As soldiers and military personnel returned home, they reunited with their families or started their own, and there was a nationwide perseverance to uplift one’s economic situation and strive towards a better life. Migration to areas in the northeast, the east coast, and the west coast became a way of life for many attracted by the plentiful job opportunities in these locations.

The baby boom years also contributed greatly to the rise of suburbia. As cities became more crowded, attracting millions of migrants from elsewhere, urban populations began to spread outward, and outlying towns and communities soon absorbed the influx of new residents who worked in the city during the day but lived in the suburbs with their families. Suburbs grew to become part of the American Dream as well, with baby boomers looking at a quiet suburban home as their ultimate goal.

Suburbs transformed sleepy bedroom communities into vibrant population centers on their own, thanks to the rise of the shopping mall, another product of this period in history. People began to troop to the malls and shopping centers for their consumer needs, and malls began to offer anything and everything that shoppers would want, all in one place. Mom-and-pop retail stores soon faced stiff competition from big-box retailers with nationwide delivery and production.

During the ’50’s, movies officially became the favorite form of entertainment, whether it was at the neighborhood drive-in theater, the new cineplexes, or through the television. As entertainment became more affordable and accessible to the masses, households were soon tuning in to their favorite serials and news programs on the television, replacing radio. Radio did not completely disappear, of course, as rock music became the major cultural driving force of the ’60’s. If you need a more in-depth discussion about the baby boom history, you can visit this page.

Children of the baby boom years remember the many national events that shaped our society to this day, with the rapid changes in civil rights, the uncertainty of the Cold War, and the space era. As you look back at those years, you might understandably feel the need to call your friends and family members who were also around at that time to share your memories and swap stories . It would be useful to take a look at some of the cell phone plans for seniors listed here so you can stay in touch with your fellow baby boomers and relive those days when you were growing up.

Can you feel the season changing? The weather is starting to drop, so jackets, coats, and all knitted clothing are coming out. People are becoming happier, busier, and everyone’s just a bit more generous. September has just started, but in some countries, people are already looking forward to Christmas. As December comes, almost everyone participates in the parties thrown, the food being shared, and of course, the exchanging of gifts.

Christmas is one of the busiest seasons for shopping. It’s not just the last-minute rush (although you would want to avoid that!) but even people who come early still find the stores full of people who are also interested in buying gifts. This usually leads to stressful situations for each shopper. The solution? Online shopping.

Here’s why you should shop online this Christmas season:

It doesn’t require you to leave the house

What could be a better reason than this? When you just want to bundle up and sip a cup of coffee, the last thing you’d want to do is get dressed and go shopping amidst the freezing weather. You’d have to walk among the busy crowd struggling to find that perfect gift, and when you finally do, you spend almost an hour waiting in line just to buy it. Then you have to carry all the bags as you trod from one store to another. Not getting out of the house also means no gas purchase (and avoiding having to find parking, that’s always a plus), or commuting fees. So don’t go out! Lie on your couch and get your mug and laptop, and still get that shopping done. That’s convenience at its best.

You can get the best deals

How else can you compare prices without actually having to walk to different stores? If you want a particular product in the mall, you’d have to go to all the shops and check each product and their price difference. Through online shopping, you can get the product for the best price just by searching on different sites. You can also get online coupons which add discounts to your purchases. Come on, that’s better than having to actually print out these coupons and giving them to the cashier in a store.

You also get to avoid these cashiers, and the salespeople who pressure you into buying stuff. You don’t need their sales talk anymore – you can find dozens of reviews online from people who’ve actually purchased the product. With all these comparison, you can find out for yourself which buy is actually worth your money.

Unlimited selections

With online shopping, you have more options to choose from. You wouldn’t be limited to a shop in a certain country or place; you can have your pick among the products in the whole world, some of which are not even available in-store! And the worst thing you can do is to let your internet connectivity issues limit your online shopping options. Here is the Comcast number that you can call to get your internet issues resolved and you can resume your boundless shopping experience.

Getting mail is so fun

Isn’t it just an amazing feeling when the doorbell finally rings and you get the shipment you’ve been waiting for? Or getting home from work and seeing boxes for you? It’s like Santa’s already been at your house.

Organized expense

With all the email confirmations you’re going to receive, arranging your finances will be easier than ever. Goodbye to lost receipts, hello to digital copies. This is how shopping is done.

As we’re heading to the last quarter of the year, we say goodbye to our cool, breezy clothing and welcome back our warmer clothes tucked away in storage. We follow the fashion as seasons change – out with the old and in with the new, right?

A few decades earlier, futuristic fashion was imagined to be body fit jumpsuits and metallic fabrics with the latest gizmos attached to matching headgears. Fifteen years in the twenty-first century and we still haven’t quite reached that stage. Try walking around in a metallic suit and you’ll surely be a sight to see wherever you go.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get excited with the latest fashion trends. After all, it’s never too early to start preparing for the year ahead! We wouldn’t want to be the last person to know about the apparel-to-have, so start the look out for 2015’s fashion forecast:

1. A Throwback With A Twist

We can’t always avoid the past, but that’s because we don’t have to. Pieces inspired by the fashion of the 60s and 70s will become trendy in the next year. The classic and vintage comeback slightly mutes the retro vibe, as the combination of thrift shop pieces is reinvented in a modern way, resulting in a creative mix that makes sense fashionably.

2. Dare to Bare

We’ve seen the emergence of bold trends this 2014, so 2015 will definitely take it one level up. With more women willing to show off their body and still keeping it classy (such as the mid riff cropped top matched with high waist bottoms), it won’t come as a surprise when we see more skin without looking skimpy.

3. The Future is Loud and Bright

We’ve seen tribal prints come and go, but next year’s trend might be more than the vibrant appeal. Bright colors will be mixed with neutrals, but the highlight of this trend will be the right fabrics used, as well as the abundance of detail, like repeated geometric patterns. It’s not Boho and laidback; the artisanal accents create elegance in the intricacy.

4. Comfort Is King

Notice that the material from where the pieces are made of has been emphasized again and again. Gone are the days when people have suffered for the little enjoyment of beautiful things. The re-emergence of big coats, fur clothes, poncho, and knitted outfits prove this true.

5. Androgyny and Equality

Men have worn skinny jeans and women have worn boyfriend jeans. Pieces listed as only for a certain sex have definitely gone out to the sewing machine, and back to closets, regardless of gender.

We might not be walking around with jetpacks yet, but we’ve certainly continued moving forward with fashion and technology, so who’s to say it won’t happen anytime soon? We definitely won’t want to be left out; watch out for the latest fashion tips by tuning in to TV shows via Charter Cable.

Having troubles with your cable? Or you simply don’t have cable yet? The best and easiest way to have access or solve this is to call the Charter Cable Customer Service phone number. With friendly customer representatives willing to help you and set up your new cable, you’re sure to have the hottest fashion news available on your television.

An uncompromising artist with a singular vision, Eldzier Cortor has celebrated the beauty and spiritual strength of black women in his painting and lithographs for more than five decades.

He was born on January 10, 1916, in Richmond, Virginia. His father was a self-taught electrician who moved his family to Chicago, Illinois, when Eldzier was still an infant. The senior Cortar opened a grocery store and appliance repair shop with his wife and later became one of the first black pilots in the United States. His son began copying comic strips as a boy and aspired to become a cartoonist. At Englewood High School, he met fellow student CHARLES WHITE, another future African-American artist.

Cortor dropped out of high school and went to work to help support his family. He continued, however, to pursue his interest in art in evening drawing classes at the Chicago Art Institute. He was finally able to attend the institute full-time at the age of 25. A white teacher from Texas exposed him to the exquisite sculpture of Africa and helped convince Cortor to pursue fine art. After finishing school he went to work in 1937 on federal arts projects for the Works Progress Administration. He also taught art at the South Side Community Arts Center.

Cortor was awarded a Rosenwald Fellowship and used the money to travel to the Sea Islands off the South Carolina coast. Here he lived among the native African Americans called Gullah, who had strong cultural ties to Africa. About this time he abandoned his earlier abstract art for a more representational style of painting that focused on African-American people. He later moved to New York and studied at the National Institute of Design and Columbia University, where he learned woodblock printing. Cortor mastered the art of lithography, in which prints are made from an original work of art. This allowed him to sell inexpensive copies of one painting and freed him from having to work with galleries to sell his artwork.

Cortor began to create the stunning, statuesque nude black women that he is best known for. Heavily influenced by African sculpture, his paintings of nudes have the shape and weight of sculptures with their full, elongated bodies. These strong women sometimes appeared within the crowded, sordid confines of an urban apartment. Rather than make them less noble, such surroundings only brought their power and dignity to the fore.

A photograph of one of Cortor’s paintmgs appeared in Life magazine in 1946 and brought him national attention. It also earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed him to travel to the West Indian islands of Cuba, Jamaica, and Haiti. He fell in love with the African-derived culture of Haiti and remained there for two years, teaching drawing at the Haitian Centre d’Art in the capital of Port-au-Prince.

On his return to the States, Cortor lived in Chicago and then New York City. When sales of his paintings fell off during the politically conservative 1950s, he lived in Mexico for several years. Returning to the United States, he grew tired of the politics involved in dealing with art galleries and sold his lithographs directly through the Associated American Artists of New York. The only other avenue for his work is competitive, juried museum shows. Eldzier Cortor has remained faithful to his nudes, which he refers to as his “classical compositions,” and has not changed his style to take advantage of current arttrends and fashions.

He created paintings that he has said “can fit into any period—not locked into a style that will go out of date … I very carefully try to keep things from being the latest style—the latest thing.”

Back in 1940, he said, “I want to paint, never reach any set goals, always work towards an ideal.” Now in his 90s, Eldzier Cortor is still working toward that ideal.

Further Reading

Bearden, Romare, and Harry Henderson. A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to thePresent. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993, pp. 272-279.